


My Best Subject

by Dftba99



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 17:58:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4189548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dftba99/pseuds/Dftba99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A super cheesy hs au. Richard has a big gay crush on the new kid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I finally started it what??? The rest of the gang will be involved soon. (Prepare yourselves for extensive gilfoyle sarcasm in the future lol)

"Can I sit here?" 

Richard shot upright in his desk. He'd been up all night designing a new dungeon layout and had been trying to get a few minutes' rest before class started. 

"Um, excuse me?"

He looked at the boy standing beside him. He was too tall, a fact he seemed aware of because he stood with a slight slump. His clothes didn't quite fit his thin frame and his huge blue eyes were staring at him with an almost heartbreaking level of concern. He reminded richard of a scarecrow. A sad, unintimidating scarecrow. 

He was almost cute, in a lost puppy sort of way.

"You know what, it's fine. Nevermind. I'll just-"

"Oh no, you can- you can sit there if you want. It's okay. Really." 

The boy's face lit up as he sat in the vacant desk beside richard. 

"Thank you so much! I'm Jared, by the way," he said as he extended a hand.

"Richard."

"It's very nice to meet you, Richard." God, where did this guy come from? He's like a caricature of how every old person sees their grandchildren. 

"I....are you new here?" Richard doesn't have the best memory, but he's pretty sure he'd remember meeting someone like jared.

"Oh. Yes. I just moved here. I'm-" his smile fell for a moment. "I'm staying with a new family in town." 

Richard wasn't really sure how to respond, but he figured anything would be better than just letting jared's statement hang there. 

"That sounds....nice. Do you uh, like it there? So far?" Jared opened his mouth to respond, but their Trig teacher entered the classroom, cutting the boys' conversation short. 

Richard's mind was wandering as his teacher rambled through meaningless introductions. This semester you'll learn this and that, and I'll be holding you to such and such standard, and I'm gonna give you a copy of the syllabus even though I'm gonna read the whole thing to the class anyway. 

For some reason, richard kept finding himself looking at jared. Once, Jared caught him looking and shot him a shy smile. Richard pretended to not notice the butterflies in his stomach. 

"......Let's see here, Nelson Bighetti?"

Jesus were they only just now getting to the role? Class must almost be over by now! It's already....that clock has to be broken, right?

"Donald Dunn?" 

Jared winced. "Um, here," he mumbled uncomfortably. 

Jared, or Donald apparently, glanced at richard. He looked embarrassed. Richard couldn't help but wonder why he'd lied about his name. But, he remembered  the year when he made everyone call him Dylan because he thought it sounded cool. And Donald is a pretty dorky name, so jared it is.

Trigonometry crept along. By the end of it, richard was questioning his sanity. Eighteen more weeks of this? It can't be done!

He saw Jared getting up to leave and was almost sad that class was over. 

"Um, hey, jared? What class are you headed to?"

Jared seemed surprised that someone was acknowledging his existence "Oh, uh, physics?" 

Damn. Oh well. 

"Oh. Okay. I uh, I have English so. I guess I'll see you around?"

Jared was beaming and richard really shouldn't be feeling this queesy. 

"Yeah! It was nice meeting you, richard,"

"You too," he called as jared rushed to second period. 

"That asshole stole my seat. I had to sit in the back of the class. Which i normally wouldn't care about, but Alicia and Brad always get into heavy petting during class. It's so distracting."

 At the time, richard hadn't even realized that the chair he'd given to jared had been claimed by Nelson 'Bighead' Bighetti, his best friend since kindergarten. 

But to be honest, he probably still would've given jared the desk even if he'd known.

"You could've just asked him to move," Richard pointed out. 

"You know I hate confrontation! Who was that guy, anyway?" 

"Jared Dunn. He's new."

"He's like, the least cool guy I've ever seen."

Richard smiled. "You have no idea."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god this chapter is dumb. Nothing happens lol

"God I hate history. It's such a waste of time, ya know? Like, when am I ever gonna need to know where Stonewall Jackson took a shit?" Richard laughed half heartedly. He wanted to care about what Bighead was saying, but he couldn't resist scanning the cafeteria. 

There he was, struggling to find a place amid a sea of established friend groups. He looked like a toddler who'd lost his parents at Disneyland. 

"Jared!" Richard called, rushing over to him. Jared instantly looked relieved.

"Oh. Hello richard! I uh, I was trying to find a place to sit...." He looked so flustered. Richard felt an urge to just reach out and hug him. 

"You can sit with us! I mean, if you want to? My friends, they're kind of weird, but once you get to know them-"

"That sounds nice! Who are your friends?"  
Richard gestured towards their table. Most of them didn't even seem to notice his absence. Bighead was staring at him with an annoyed expression. 

"Uh, the big guy is Erlich Bachman. He's a senior. He thinks that since he's older, we need him to be our mentor or something. He's a bit of an asshole, and I don't think I've ever seen him sober, but he's pretty cool," Jared nodded. He looked like he was trying to commit Richard's words to memory.

"The one who's uh, staring at us is Nelson Bighetti. We call him 'Bighead' because....well, you know, 'Bighetti', 'Bighead'....um. He's also kind of an asshole, but uh, we've been friends since like, birth, so." Richard coughed awkwardly. God, why does jared make him forget how to talk?!?

"Um. The girl is Carla Whaldon? Shes- well, I guess she's an asshole too. But she's like, the only girl who's willingly been around any of us, like ever."

Jared nodded thoughtfully. "And what about the two yelling at eachother?" 

"Oh, uh, the Pakistani one is Dinesh Chugtai. He's a bit of a diva, but he's pretty good at dungeons and dragons. And then the one with the glasses is Bertram Gilfoyle. We just call him gilfoyle. He's like, the meanest person I've ever met, but it's mostly directed at dinesh. We're pretty sure they're crazy about eachother. Carla and erlich actually have a pool going about when they'll finally just start fucking mid-argument."

"How do you know they haven't already?" Jared asked, staring at the bickering teens. 

Richard felt his face getting hot and tried to will it it away. "Haha. Yeah. Well, anyway, they're both-"

"Buttholes?"

Oh my god, he doesn't swear either. This guy is too much.  

"Yeah. They uh, they all are. I guess."

"Well then it's good they have you to balance them out," Jared said, smiling at richard.

Richard is sure he's blushing like crazy now. 

"Richard, who the fuck is this?" Erlich was sizing jared up like a piece of meat. 

"Oh that's Richard's new best friend, jared," Bighead can be so petty sometimes.  

"Yeah, well. He's sitting with us, okay?" Richard said as he pulled out a chair. Jared started to sit in the empty seat beside him.

"Hey, no. He can't sit there," Dinesh said.

Richard sighed, exasperated. "Why not?"

"That's Jian Yang's seat!"

"Jian Yang isn't even here!"

"If he sits there today, where's he gonna sit tomorrow when Jian Yang gets back?" Gilfoyle asked.

Richard felt like he was dealing with children. "Look,  just shut the fuck up, okay? Jared is a cool guy, and Jian Yang doesn't even speak english! Jared, sit there."

Jared looked embarrassed, but grateful. 

"Thank you for standing up for me, richard. No one's ever done that for me before, let alone someone I barely know."

"Oh, it was- it was nothing, jared. Really," Richard said, trying to hide his grin.

"If you don't mind me saying, I think we're going to become great friends." Richard could feel his heart in his throat.

"Yeah. Me too."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness this one is something else.

Jared quickly became a part of Richard's daily routine.

Wake up. Get dressed. Go to school. Jared. 

Richard gave up on actually learning anything in Trig about a week into the semester. He'd been sending notes back and forth with jared since class started. He was watching jared's reaction to a joke he'd made about erlich's stupid facial hair. Wow, he's so cute when he laughs. Richard needs a girlfriend.

"Mr. Hendricks?"

Richard turned to his teacher. He heard a wave of snickering across the classroom and felt hot embarrassment creep up his neck.

"Yes sir?"

"Would you care to explain problem number six to the class?" 

Richard looked down at his blank paper. 

"I uh, I didn't....do it."

"Mr. Hendricks, this is an honors class. I expect you to act like it. Mr. Dutta, will you be so kind as to explain number six?" 

Richard knew he should feel bad about getting yelled at, but there was a small folded piece of paper on his desk. 

'I'm sorry I got you in trouble' 

All of  the embarrassment started to melt away. 

'You don't have to apologize' Richard had found himself needing to say that phrase a lot now that Jared was his friend. 'that guy is a dick anyway'

Jared read the note and smiled at him. Yeah, Trig is bullshit. 

Well, okay, so richard hadn't entirely given up on learning *anything* in that class. In fact, he was using it as primary resource in his research about jared. His research was extensive, and he studied it daily. 

It had become sort of a game for richard. He got points if jared laughed or smiled or showed signs of excitement about their conversation, and lost points if jared looked uncomfortable. The thing that awarded him the most points was getting jared to reveal something about his personal life. Where he lived, the family he was staying with, the way he viewed things. They were incredibly rare topics with Jared. 

It was risky as well. Trying to get jared to talk about personal things often resulted in jared awkwardly ignoring Richard's notes, thus ending conversation for the day until lunch. 

So for the most part, they stuck to safer topics: Movies, books, their friends. 

"So why don't gilfoyle and dinesh just confess their feelings for one another? Surely it's as obvious to them as it is to everyone else."

Richard shrugged. "I don't know. Pride, mostly. Dinesh doesn't want to admit he's gay for his nemesis, and gilfoyle doesn't want to admit that he has actual human emotions." Jared laughed and richard felt a tightness in his chest. He really needs a girlfriend.

Richard was thankful for the fact that Jared had been more or less  assimilated into their group. He wasn't exactly part of the group yet, but he had been accepted as Richard's weird and dorky but pretty nice friend. Gilfoyle and erlich still made harsh comments to him from time to time, but jared had learned not to take it personally. 

When richard brought up the topic of video games, he was shocked to learn that Jared could count the times he'd played them on one hand. 

"One of my foster brothers had a system when I was little, but I mostly just watched him play," he admitted shyly. Richard decided that this needed to be remedied immediately. 

Although honestly, it was really just an excuse to see jared outside of school.

Richard was combing his hair for once. He hated the way jared made him so self conscious about his looks. He's just a guy, he shouldn't make richard so nervous! 

"Oh hi! You must be jared! Oh I've heard so much about you! Richie? Honey, your friend's here!"

Oh god no.

Richard rushed to the door, but it was too late. His mother had jared in one of her famous way-too-tight hugs. 

"Oh Richie, you never told me he was so handsome!" Was jared blushing? Richard had never seen him blush like that before. It was a good look for him.

His mother gasped. "You're so skinny! Goodness gracious, are your parents not feeding you?"

"Mom, please stop." Richard loved his mother, really he did. But she had a tendency to be, well, really fucking embarrassing. Like, all the time.

"Alright, alright! I'm going! I'll see you around, jared!" Richard wanted to melt into the floor.

"It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Hendricks!" Jared called. He's too polite for his own good. 

Teaching someone with so little experience to play video games was harder than richard had expected, but jared was a quick learner. Soon, they were spending time together almost every weekend. 

As they became closer, jared started to tell richard things about his past. Small things that didn't really matter, like "I used to birdwatch all the time with this one family" or "I had a foster sister who taught me to play the piano, but I never got very good". With anyone else, they would've been trivial, but coming from jared, they were a reward. Every time he opened up, richard wanted to know more. It was addictive. Richard always loved puzzles, and jared was one he was determined to solve. 

"Why don't you go by Donald?" It was almost midnight, much later than jared usually stayed, but richard didn't want him to leave. They were sitting on the couch together, pretending to watch some shitty sci fi film.

"What?" Jared tensed noticeably and richard knew that he was uncomfortable. Normally richard would instantly change the subject, but he'd been wondering since the day they met and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Well, you call yourself jared and stuff, but your birth name is donald, right? So like, why don't you like being called donald?"

Jared sighed. "I uh, I was named after my father." Jared looked away from richard. "My dad, Donald senior, he was never really around that much. After my mother died, I thought maybe he'd spend more time at home. But he still wasn't ever there. One time, I didn't even see him for almost a week." He forced out a shaky laugh. Richard felt so guilty for pressing the question. He should've just let it go. 

"I had this one foster father, his name was jared. He taught me about birdwatching and how to play chess. He always used to say that it didn't cost anything to be nice to someone. He lived his life trying to improve the lives of others." Jared coughed awkwardly. "My mother wanted me to share a name with my father, but jared was more of a father to me than donald ever was. So I go by jared now."

Richard felt like such a dick. "I'm so sorry jared."

"It's okay, you have a right to know who you're letting in your house all the time."

Richard heard jared's voice break. He wished he could take it back, but what's done is done. Tentatively, Richard took jared's hand. He knew it could just make the situation more awkward, but he couldn't stand just letting him sit there. 

Jared squeezed his hand. "I- I'm really glad I met you, Richard," he said, finally looking him in the eyes. 

The movie faded to black and they were alone together in the dark. Richard felt a sudden urge to kiss him. It was crazy, of course. They were just friends and jared was so vulnerable and Richard's not even sure if he's gay himself, let alone jared.

 But still, what if? Things could work between them, richard was sure of it. He would keep jared safe and drown him in affection until all the people who'd hurt him were just memories. And sometimes when they looked at each other, richard thought he could see something in those huge blue eyes. Something he was sure jared could see in him.

But the moment passed, and with it went Richard's bravery. 

"I'm glad I met you too, jared. You're- you're really a great person."

Jared smiled. "I uh, I should probably be getting home, huh?"

Maybe not all of his bravery. 

"You could stay here tonight, if you want. It's really late, and you don't have a car. You should stay. Definitely."

Jared looked shocked, but grinned at him. Richard's heart fluttered. 

"Yeah, okay."

Maybe richard doesn't need a girlfriend.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long! Some personal stuff came up and I could devote any time to writing. But its here and this is the most corny thing ever ahhhh

Richard had never been a greedy person. But now, he found himself desperate for more of jared. 

After that first night, jared spending the night with him became a regular thing. They would stay up until the sun rose, talking about everything from dungeons and dragons to whether Jian yang was only pretending to not speak English to get out of doing school work. And then when the sun came up, they would spend the morning napping on his couch. 

Once, richard had accidentally fallen asleep at some point during the night. He awoke with his head on jared's chest. God, how does he get himself into these situations? He knew that he should move away before jared woke up, but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't kind of nice. Richard could hear jared's heartbeat and feel the heat radiating from his bony body. He should move away. He should really move away. But Richard stayed as still as possible to avoid waking jared and enjoyed the moment.

When jared finally did wake up, richard quickly sat up and scooted to the other side of the couch. Jared stretched sleepily, raising his long arms above his head. The hem of his shirt was pulled up, revealing a bit of his pale stomach. Richard swallowed hard and reminded himself that this was jared. His friend jared. His male friend jared.

They never talked about it, but richard knew jared never wanted to go back home. He insisted that the family he was staying with were nice people, but richard was suspicious. Jared had never come to school with a black eye or anything, but he always seemed so tired. Jared never really talked about them, but this wasn't necessarily a sign of any mistreatment. Jared never really talked about anything, afterall. 

Richard tried to push the stupid things he'd thought that night to the back of head. But, they always seemed to find their way back. When his mind was wandering in English class, his thoughts would drift to jared. No matter where his train of thought started, it would always end up on that smile, that laugh, those eyes.

And those stupid impulses to kiss him wouldn't go away. In fact, they were getting worse. The two could be in the middle of a conversation about the most mundane thing, but suddenly he'd want to cup jared's cheek, look him in the eyes, and kiss him gently. He never acted on it, obviously, but It was driving him crazy. Eventually, it stopped being a random urge that would happen sometimes, but it just stayed in his head all day. 

Richard gets nervous pretty easily. Okay, really easily. He actually vomited on his teacher the last time he had to make a presentation. So he was used to feeling nervous around basically everyone. But with jared, it was a different kind of nervousness. It certainly wasn't anxiety. This was an exciting, almost electric kind of nervous. He wasn't used to it, but he found himself craving it. 

He didn't want to admit to anyone. Not even himself. But, there was no point in denying it because it was driving him insane. 

He had a major crush on jared. 

"Um, richard? May I, uh- that is- can we talk?"

Richard could feel his heart start racing. Their friends gave him confused glances. 

Richard swallowed. He felt like all the moisture had left his mouth. "Y-yeah, jared. Sure."

They stepped away from their table. Richard couldn't help but notice that jared's hand were shaking a little. Richard instantly switched from excitement to concern. 

"Is everything okay, jared?" He asked.

"Yes. Everything's fine," Jared cleared his throat. "So um, you know the spring formal?" 

Of course, the annual competition to see who's parents are the most willing to pay outrageous amounts of money for their kids to feel special for the night. 

Gilfoyle had said for years that the entire 'school dance' scene was beneath him, but he'd changed his tune since he'd starting dating that freshman, tara. Dinesh said that his 'girlfriend in nevada' would 'try to show up', but richard hadn't gotten his hopes up about meeting her. Bighead and Carla were apparently going as friends because carla's parents couldn't stand the idea of her going alone. Or god frobid, not going at all. If erlich went at all, it would be stag. Richard had been thinking about maybe asking Monica from his economics class, just so he could go without feeling awkward. 

"Yeah, what about it?"

Jared was shifting awkwardly. Richard was worried that he might pass out.

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe, you know, if you didn't already have someone you were going with, it might be nice if- if maybe we went together?"

Richard thought his heart would burst from his chest. The dance? With jared? He's dreaming. This has to be a dream. He tried to respond, but couldn't make his mouth work. 

Jared's face fell slightly. "Or not, if you'd rather go with someone else, that's fine. I just thought-"

"I want to go with you. I was actually gonna ask you," Richard said. He wasnt, of course. He didn't have the balls. But he'd certainly thought about it. 

Jared's face lit up. Richard's heart found itself in his throat. 

"Terrific! I can't wait!" He was grinning like a dork and Richard's pretty sure he is too. Jared started to head back to their table, but hesitated. He leaned forward and awkwardly pecked Richard's cheek before leaving to rejoin their group. 

Richard spent the rest of the day feeling like he was flying. His cheek was tingling from where jared's soft lips had been. He felt like he could do anything. 

He knew he couldn't hide his elation from his mother, so he wasn't surprised when she shot him a questioning look.

"What are you so smiley about, huh?"

Richard tried to avoid her gaze. "Um, well, you know my friend jared?" 

Richard knew his mother was an open minded woman, but the pessimist inside of him expected her to be upset. And if richard had told her about any other boy, he's not so sure it would've went as well. But fortunately, jared is one of the most likeable guys richard has ever met, and his mother was in no way immune to his innocent charms. 

".......and of course, I'll have to take him suit shopping. That family he's staying with doesn't have much to spare, after all. And he's such a sweet boy, it's the least I can do. And......" richard pretended to listen to his mother rambling, but his thoughts were on the little kiss he'd won.

He'd hoped that maybe once he'd gotten something, the longing in his chest would disapate at least a little. But richard was greedy, and all he wanted was more.


End file.
